Debt settlement is supposed to be a lifeline for people struggling with money. However, even legitimate programs with good intentions can leave consumers with more debt than they started with, according to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending. Read carefully before handing over the reins to your debt.

Debt settlement programs can make a huge difference—they usually promise to negotiate with your creditors on your behalf to lower interest rates, lower payments, and help you set up a payment structure that will get you out of debt over time and within your budget. The best ones follow through on that promise. However, the Center for Responsible Lending report notes that many of those programs require you to default on that debt first before they can work with you, which is a pretty ugly black mark on your credit score and financial history.

Once you've defaulted on debt, any future loans, credit cards, or financial products you may need get exponentially harder to get, and when you do get them, you're subject to higher interest rates and fees. Even worse, once you've defaulted and signed on the dotted line, the settlement firm can only promise to work with your creditors. Some banks will just refuse to budge on interest rates or payments, which leaves you where you started, just in a poorer financial situation, and sometimes actually increases your debt, by up to 20%

You can read the full report linked below. The report suggests changes for the debt settlement industry, but for everyday people looking to wrangle their debt, it may be better to make sure the company you want to work with doesn't require you to default on your loan and doesn't sell financial services (meaning they're not trying to push you into a consolidation loan, which has its own problems). If things still look bad, remember, it may be daunting, but you can do it yourself.